


And You Rip It From My Hands (Well Now You've Won)

by entropy_maximum (missjmelville)



Series: Graceless [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, M/M, Post Season/Series 06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-07
Updated: 2013-06-07
Packaged: 2017-12-14 05:33:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/833334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missjmelville/pseuds/entropy_maximum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel gives them a week to make their decision.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And You Rip It From My Hands (Well Now You've Won)

**Author's Note:**

> Pretty much takes off right after the finale 6x22, inspired by Mumford and Sons I Gave You All.

It’s funny, he thinks, how things can go so wrong in such a short amount of time. He gave them a week to make their decision but the week was to be his undoing.

He was so strong, so powerful, so magnificent that he knew he could rip the world in two with just a thought if he so wanted. It was exhilarating. He knew Dean was prone to making snap decisions but he wanted the Winchesters (He included Bobby in this, they were family after all) to think about his proposal carefully. He didn’t want to kill them but if they decided not to bow down to him, they would have to be eliminated. They were his biggest threat.

When he returns to Heaven it’s almost as if nothing has changed, he walks the Garden and smiles at all the voices of his angels he can hear rushing through him and over him. He calls them all to assemble and he addresses them. There are those he needs to punish but with the knowledge that Raphael is now gone for good, there isn’t much resistance. He smiles.

He knows now that he was right, this was the right thing to do, Dean was wrong. He knows it with a certainty that burns fiercely in his grace. The week passes quickly, he stays in Heaven and makes sure things are running smoothly, he’ll leave Earth alone for a little while longer.

For the first time in forever, Castiel feels whole. He’s happy and he’s magnificent. He doesn’t need friends, they all betrayed him anyway, he doesn’t need family, angels or Winchesters, he needs no one. On his way to Earth after the week is up, he takes a detour, he finds Crowley in an underground bunker decorated with so many angel-warding sigils that it glows to Castiel’s eyes.

It doesn’t make a difference, he’s not an angel anymore. Crowley won’t escape this time. He doesn’t even need the demon’s bones to destroy him, Crowley flinches back when Castiel appears and he tries to beg and bribe for his life. Castiel just smiles and presses his hand to Crowley’s chest. The only good thing for Crowley is that it’s over quickly. A blast of heat, searing light and a bang like a gun and all that’s left of the demon Crowley is a rumpled suit.

Castiel wipes his hand on his coat and leaves without another thought. He can feel Dean, now that he’s back on Earth, the first soul he saved pulls at him and he goes to it willingly. The room he lands in is unfamiliar and it’s empty, he frowns.

The room shimmers and he realises a second too late that he’s trapped. The illusion they put up falls down and he’s left standing in Bobby’s panic room in front of the three hunters he’d pledged his life to so many times before. The room is different, they’ve done something to it, he feels a sudden panic overtake him and he looks around in shock.

“What have you done?” he tries to sound merely curious as his mind races trying to figure out how he can get out. He takes a menacing step forward and tries to bring his power to the front, tries to cow them into letting him go but there’s nothing there.

There’s nothing there.

Dean holds out his hand, clenched into a fist and unfolds his fingers. There in his palm is his amulet.

“I’m sorry, Cas, you left us with no other choice,” Sam says from Dean’s left, his face is sad but there’s a hardness to his expression that makes Cas think that this was probably Sam’s idea.

“What’s the matter? Someone clipped your wings?” Bobby asks gruffly, all anger and hurt. Castiel thinks he deserves it.

He doesn’t know why they’re doing this, he saved them, he saved the world! In a flash of clarity he knows how they managed it, they tied his grace to the pendant, they chained him to the Earth and now they’re going to destroy it all. Fear and panic make his blood run cold and he shivers, blinks and tries one last time.

“Please, don’t do this,” he begs, they don’t know what they’re doing, they don’t get it, they were wrong, he was right.

Dean doesn’t say a word but he drops the amulet to the ground where it lands with an oddly muffled clank and in the millisecond before Dean’s heel comes down to crush it, he breaks.

“No! Please, stop! You don’t know what you’re doing! Dean!” his voice cracks and he’s shaking all over, he’s never felt anything like this before. He’s never felt so scared in his life.

When Dean’s heel crushes the amulet into dust with a sound like shattered glass there is silence. For a heartbeat nothing happens. Then Castiel is screaming with all his grace, the pain overwhelming him, burning him alive and so he screams.

The room shakes and the hunters cover their ears desperately trying to block out the deafening ring of Castiel’s true voice. It seems to go on forever and then the temperature in the room drops and ice starts to form along the walls and floor and suddenly Castiel is just screaming, no grace left.

He screams and screams and falls to the floor where he claws at the ice and leaves bloody smears in his wake. They’re watching him now, Bobby and Sam are both clutching at their ears still, not realising that Castiel has lost his grace. Dean gets down on his knees and pulls Castiel into him.

“I’m sorry, Cas,”

And just like that he turns on Dean, bloody fingers grasping and scratching and punching and pulling, and Dean just lets him.

“I did everything for you!” he finally cries, tears streaming down his face and hands grasping Dean’s jacket.

“I gave up my life for you! Twice!” he’s trembling and gasping, “I did everything you ever asked of me, I gave you everything and you betrayed me!” he’s suddenly breathless.

“I gave you all of me, I would have given you Heaven and Earth as well and this is how you repay me?” then like a switch has been turned off, he falls forward into Dean’s arms and cries because he has nothing left. He gave Dean everything and it still wasn’t enough for him to win.


End file.
